1. Technical Field
Embodiments described herein generally relate to integrated circuit devices and more particularly, but not exclusively, to communication between integrated circuit devices.
2. Background Art
Current multi-lane interface standards provide only limited options for physically connecting devices. Typically, printed circuit board routing is constrained by an interface standard specifying that transmitter device outputs are each to be coupled only to a specific corresponding input of a receiver device. Consequently, circuit board designers and layout engineers are limited as to how transmitting and receiving devices are to be placed with respect to one another.
Some limited layout flexibility is provided by interface technology which supports polarity inversion and/or lane reversal. Polarity inversion enables the positive and negative signals of a differential pair to be switched with one another. Lane reversal allows an interface to be connected as a whole to some device in either of two opposite orientations (for example, so that a line of N pins 0, 1, 2, . . . , (N−1) of an interface can instead be coupled to operate, respectively, as pins (N−1), . . . , 2, 1, 0). However, polarity inversion and lane reversal only slightly improve the routing options available to board designers.